Great Britain mix youth and experience for 2010 Invacare World Team Cup
The Tennis Foundation has opted for a mixture of youth and experience to represent Great Britain in the 2010 Invacare World Team Cup in Antalya, Turkey, from 3-9 May.
Twelve wheelchair tennis players have been selected to represent Great Britain, including
Nottinghamshire’s David Phillipson, Scotland’s Gordon Reid and Middlesex’s Marc McCarroll.
They were all part of the same Great Britain Men’s Squad that finished fifth last year at the 2009 Invacare World Team Cup in Nottingham, which proved to be the best British performance across all competitions in the event’s 25 year history,
“This is our version of the Davis Cup and Fed Cup,” said current British Number 3, McCarroll. “It’s a big focus for us and I’m really looking forward to it after making my debut on home soil last year. It was a very successful first experience of playing in the event and hopefully we can perform just as well this year, if not better.”
Phillipson, Reid and McCarroll are all currently ranked inside the world’s top 30.
Jordanne Whiley and Louise Hunt, both world top 20 players and members of the Great Britain trio that reached a first ever Women’s final in 2009, are joined this year in a three-strong team by former National champion Kay Forshaw, who returns to World Team Cup competition for the first time since helping Great Britain to the semi-finals in 2003 in Poland, having started a family in the intervening period.
"I'm very excited to have been selected to play for Great Britain again, seven years after my last World Team Cup in Poland in 2003,” said Forshaw. “That was one of a few occasions I played when Great Britain reached the women's semi-finals, so the World Team Cup has some happy memories for me. It's a unique tournament and an environment that I enjoy a lot, but it will also be my biggest challenge since taking time out of the sport to start a family and it’s a challenge I'm very much looking forward to."
While current British No. 1 Lucy Shuker misses this year’s Invacare World Team Cup as she concentrates her preparations on the upcoming Japan Open ITF Super Series event, 17-year-old world No. 1 ranked junior Whiley makes her third successive appearance in the senior Women’s event, having previously joined Phillipson and Reid in the Great Britain team that won the World Team Cup Junior title in 2007 in Stockholm, Sweden.
This year Whiley will become one of the youngest players to ever represent Great Britain at number one in the Women’s event at an Invacare World Team Cup, which follows a similar format to the Davis and Fed Cups, with each tie consisting of two singles and a doubles rubber.
Great Britain go in to this year’s Invacare World Team Cup as the reigning champions in the Quad event, but with Paralympic champion and world No. 1 Peter Norfolk not travelling to Turkey this year as he takes some time out to concentrate on his family, the trio of Antony Cotterill, Adam Field and John Parfitt form a completely different team of players to the one that triumphed in 2009.
“The focus this year is on developing our players and giving more of them experience of competing in this unique environment and at this level,” said Claire Lavers, the Tennis Foundation’s Director of Disability Tennis and Great Britain Team Manager. “Our men’s team is the same, so we want to consolidate our fifth position of last year. To progress in such a competitive division would be a major achievement. Without our top ranked quad player Peter Norfolk and women’s player Lucy Shuker, it will be hard to hold on to the respective gold and silver medal positions achieved in 2009, but we will give it our best shot.”
After making a solid start to 2010, Parfitt makes his Invacare World Team Cup debut for Great Britain, while Cotterill is selected for the fourth time in five years. Field, who is warming up for the World Team Cup by playing in this week’s Israel Open in Tel Aviv, represents Great Britain for the third time in the Quad event. The 23-year-old has also played twice previously in the Junior event.
Devon 17-year-old Josh Steels, who made his debut in Nottingham last year, when Great Britain finished fifth in the Junior World Team Cup, is joined in this year’s Great Britain Junior team by Norfolk 12-year-old Alfie Hewitt, who makes his Invacare World Team Cup debut as a player for Great Britain a year after being the team mascot and leading the Great Britain squad out at the 2009 opening ceremony in Nottingham.